I sat at the computer keyboard the other day deep in thought, when my wife wandered in and jokingly asked, “A penny for your thoughts?”

“I’d like to share those thoughts with you,” I laughed, “but they’re now apparently worth 3.7 cents.”

Such is life in the Speer household where journalism and politics often intertwine.

Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. Mint would cease producing pennies, citing the rising cost of doing so. Apparently, it costs 3.7 cents to make a one-cent penny, which obviously is a losing proposition.

In a rare display of common sense in government, Trump ordered no more pennies be produced. Last year, the U.S. Mint lost $85.3 million alone in penny production.

I have been paying close attention to this story. Apparently, I am one of those rare dinosaurs who still roam the region and pays for most things in cash and coin. There are so many coins in my pocket that I walk down the street limping to the right from the weight of the coins.

I carry enough dollars in my wallet to cover a bill at a restaurant should Diane and I choose to eat out. And if a meal for two comes in at $42.21 and I have the 21 cents in my pocket, I am going to use it along with the bills I am carrying to make exact change.

All that might change in the months ahead, however.

I am going to hedge a bet here that over the next several years, pennies will become less and less available to consumers as citizens start to collect and hoard them. That’s what my plans for the future are – collecting my pennies all in one place where I watch their value increase over time.

And trust me, penny collection is an easy way to watch an investment multiply quickly.

Back in the day, when a penny was a penny (in other words when Diane and I were raising our young family), we often helped subsidize a vacation trip through our penny collection. We had a huge empty glass water jug in our house where everyone put loose pennies. And, right before our annual summer vacation, the jar would be emptied, the pennies wrapped and taken to the bank and exchanged for bills. That money became souvenir spending funds for each boy and trust me, they usually did pretty well from this practice.

The way our family viewed it, “a penny saved was a penny earned.”

This year with penny production ceased, and more pennies leaving circulation, I figure the collector value in keeping pennies will only increase in the years ahead.

The “old school” in me still believes “a penny saved is a penny earned.”

If that is true, I still may not be able to live lavishly off those set-aside pennies, but I bet one day they’ll get me some great ice cream at the Downtown Scoops Shoppe.

Bill Speer retired in 2021 as the publisher and editor of The News. He can be reached at bspeer@thealpenanews.com.